NOTICE OF ELECTION

The Type A Notice of Election contains all the state and federal offices for the partisan primary on August 14, 2012, and the general election on November 6, 2012 and the notice of presidential election. The Type A Notice must be published by all county clerks on April 10, 2012. When a weekly newspaper is chosen for publication, the notice shall appear in the newspaper’s closest preceding issue.

It is not necessary for each county to publish all the information contained in the enclosed Type A Notice. The notice published by each county clerk lists the information regarding the presidential election, all applicable congressional district offices for which an elector in the county may vote, all applicable legislative offices for which an elector in the county may vote, the office of district attorney for your county, and all county partisan offices within your respective county. The notice must also include the statement about circulation and filing of nomination papers.

All county clerks are required to send the Type A Notice to each municipal clerk in their county no later than April 3, 2012. Municipal clerks are not required to publish the Type A Notice for the partisan primary and general election. Municipal clerks are required to certify to their county clerks the approximate number of electors in the municipality on June 1, 2012, to help the county clerks determine how many ballots to prepare for the fall election. Wis. Stats. § 5.66 (1).

Please share this information with the municipal clerks in your county.

BEGINNING OF TERMS OF OFFICE FOR FEDERAL AND STATE OFFICIALS

In the past, we have received inquiries about the January 3rd date for the beginning of federal terms. Article XX, Section 1 of the Amendments to the United States Constitution states: “The terms of Senators and Representatives end at noon on the 3rd day of January…and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”

State office terms are different from federal terms. Article XIII, Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution states: “The political year for this state shall commence on the first Monday of January in each year, and the general election shall be held on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday of November in even-numbered years.” Therefore, the term of office for those state and county offices elected on November 6, 2012 will begin on January 7, 2013.

COUNTY CANDIDATE CHECKLISTS

County candidate checklists for ballot access (GABIS-16) and campaign finance (GABIS-17) requirements are available from the Government Accountability Board website at:

These checklists were prepared to assist county candidates in qualifying for ballot placement and meeting their campaign finance requirements. You may reproduce these checklists to give to your candidates along with the proper forms: Campaign Registration Statement (GAB-1 Rev. 12/2009), Nomination Paper for Partisan Office (GAB-168 Rev. 09/2011), and Declaration of Candidacy (GAB-162 Rev. 7/2009), which can be found here http://gab.wi.gov/forms. Please ensure that you are providing the most recent version of these forms to your candidates.

OTHER INFORMATION

NOTIFICATION OF NONCANDIDACY

For the Fall 2012 Election, any incumbent officeholder who does not intend to seek re-election should file a Notification of Noncandidacy Form (GAB-163) no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 18, 2012. If an incumbent not seeking re-election does not file the notification by the deadline, and does not file ballot access papers by the required statutory deadline to seek re-election, the filing deadline will be extended an additional 72 hours for any other person wishing to run for that office. The deadline is not extended for the incumbent. If an incumbent not seeking re-election files the notification timely, the nomination paper deadline of June 1, 2012, is unchanged. If the incumbent decides to run for office after filing the notification, he or she can run for re-election by filing the appropriate ballot access papers by the normal deadline. We recommend that in early May you send this form, along with a short explanation, to all your incumbents. The GAB-163 is available from the Government Accountability Board website.

If you have any questions concerning this memorandum, please contact the Help Desk at 608-261-2028 or gab@wi.gov.